5 Strategies for Watching and Reading the News When You’re Depressed

It doesn’t take much these days to arrive at a panicked state. Not if you stay abreast of news headlines.

Nine years ago, when I had my first mental health breakdown, I realized that my psyche was way too fragile to absorb detailed updates about the turmoil in Gaza or the whereabouts of bin Laden. I didn’t want to be completely ignorant of what was going on around the world, but I needed to find a way to inform myself of the big picture stuff without losing my heart in minutiae.

I needed a strategy, because as a highly-sensitive person (as diagnosed by Elaine Aron’s book, The Highly Sensitive Person) and a person prone to panic and depression, processing all the negativity could certainly bring me down, not just for an hour or two, but for months or even years. I dare say the news has the potential to land me in the hospital again.

When I’m in a bad way emotionally, I avoid all news. When I’m doing better I listen to NPR on the way home from work. They usually present the news in an unbiased, non-dramatic way. They also warn their listeners when something graphically violent will be announced, so I immediately switch the radio off. I don’t watch TV news and or read newspapers. They tend to be mostly sensationalized.

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